A GOP congressman is predicting that Florida voters will pass a marijuana legalization initiative this November\u2014but he\u2019s less confident Congress will get around to advancing a cannabis banking bill by that time.<\/p>\n
Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, spoke about a variety of marijuana policy issues during an interview with The Dales Report, a recording of which was shared exclusively with Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n
The congressman said the Florida legalization measure \u201cwill pass\u201d come Election Day<\/a>, adding that the state is \u201cat the forefront of freedom\u201d and could create a market that serves as a \u201cmodel for a lot of other states.\u201d<\/p>\n Recent polling on the Florida cannabis initiative has been mixed. While surveys have consistently found majority support for the reform, several have showed it coming up short of the required 60 percent threshold for passage. That said, a poll from Fox News that was released last week found the measure comfortably ahead at 66 percent support<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mast said that Florida enacting legalization would add more pressure on Congress to address the state-federal marijuana policy gap.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery state that does that, it\u2019s another case here federally to say, \u2018Listen, you need to deal with [cannabis] banking, you need to deal with descheduling, you need to deal with states rights and put it down in the appropriate hands,\u201d the congressman said during the April meeting in his office in Washington, D.C., with The Dales Report staff and cannabis reform advocates.<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been people elected in for simply [supporting] cannabis as an issue that probably would not have been elected otherwise, because that\u2019s where the electorate is at,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Rep. Brian Mast (FL)<\/p>\n \u201cAmendment 3 will pass in the state of FL\u201d $MSOS<\/a> $TCNNF<\/a> $VRNOF<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/yhjqOEOOc7<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Anthony Varrell (@V_arrell) April 10, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n In any case, Mast doesn\u2019t anticipate that Congress will pass the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act by November. He said \u201cthere are individuals in the House that are holding up that,\u201d but he also faulted Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for not advancing that chamber\u2019s version to the floor after it cleared committee last September.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something that cuts in multiple directions, cuts across party lines, Republican and Democrat. I just don\u2019t see it as anything I\u2019ve heard a lot of discussion about since early last year,\u201d he said, adding that the reform has been placed \u201con the back-burner.\u201d<\/p>\n However, the congressman was proven wrong in a separate prediction during the April interview. He projected at the time that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) would not move to reschedule marijuana this year and that the result would be \u201cthe status quo.\u201d The Justice Department formally proposed moving cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) the following month.<\/p>\n Mast also criticized the double standards of certain colleagues on cannabis policy issues, contrasting their calls for states\u2019 rights over abortion with their opposition to extending those same rights to marijuana laws.<\/p>\n \u201cHow does any different standard apply when it comes to cannabis?\u201d he said. \u201cIn my opinion, if you were saying it this way for the last year in this debate [around abortion], you should say it the same way for this.\u201d<\/p>\n Mast did help secure one recent marijuana reform win, leading an amendment that was attached to a large-scale spending bill and passed by the House<\/a> that would authorize U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors to issue medical marijuana recommendations to military veterans.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also the sponsor of a separate bill meant to protect the Second Amendment rights of people who use marijuana<\/a> in legal states, allowing them to purchase and possess firearms that they\u2019re currently prohibited from having under federal law.<\/p>\n Top Biden Health Official Hints At DEA Resistance To Marijuana Rescheduling Move<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post GOP Congressman Predicts Florida Voters Will Approve Marijuana Legalization, But Doubts Congress Will Advance Cannabis Banking By November<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A GOP congressman is predicting that Florida voters will pass a marijuana legalization initiative this November\u2014but he\u2019s less confident Congress will get around to advancing a cannabis banking bill by that time. Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, spoke about a variety of marijuana policy issuesContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76123,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76122\/revisions\/76123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: GOP Congressman Predicts Florida Voters Will Approve Marijuana Legalization, But Doubts Congress Will Advance Cannabis Banking By November<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"